


Chasing You Round And Round In Circles

by Livelongandfangirling



Category: Football RPF
Genre: (because that's all I can write apparently), (eventually) - Freeform, First Kiss, Formula 1 AU, Friends to Lovers, I have zero idea where this came from, M/M, Pining, Racing Driver AU, Slow Burn, Unexpected Love Confessions, and yet here we are, with some added:
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-05-26 01:38:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14989952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livelongandfangirling/pseuds/Livelongandfangirling
Summary: 2014 Formula One World Champion Benedikt Höwedes shocked the world when he announced he was switching teams from Mercedes to Ferrari.He leaves the team who gave him everything, who the past two years haven’t been giving him the treatment he deserves, and hopes that his new challenge of working with Ferrari team mate Sami Khedira gives him that second world title he so greatly wants.But leaving his old team and settling into his new one is tough, especially without his best friend and now ex-race engineer Mats Hummels.





	1. First Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first football fandom & M/M fic so forgive me if this is all a bit rusty. I know not everyone likes Formula 1/motor racing but this has been stuck in my head for a few months now and I just had to write it down.  
> Because F1 is complex as hell I'll put together a big list of terms and definitions so hopefully everything will make sense, but if you have any questions about details then absolutely feel free to ask. This is very loosely set in 2018 (in terms of race calendar, current teams & regulations, pecking order etc). I'm still finalising a few details but I wanted to post this anyway to test the water as it were. I hope you like it!  
> As always, this is entirely a work of fiction.

Pre-season testing. It was the time in mid-February that signalled the end of the Winter break. All the teams had unveiled their cars, and the drivers were itching to get inside the cockpit and drive to see if they were in with a chance of fighting for the title. Usually, it was Benedikt’s favourite time of year.

And yet he had been sat in his parked car for the past ten minutes and hadn’t moved a muscle. Jonas, his personal trainer, was starting to get worried.

“Benni?” Jonas paused for a moment before placing his hand on his driver’s shoulder. “You okay?” Benedikt huffed and scrunched up his nose as he looked out of the windscreen.

“I don’t know, this just feels so…” He waved his hands around in the air as his voice trailed off. How Italian, he thought to himself.

“Strange?”

“Something like that” Benedikt sighed and ran a hand across his face.

He had (unintentionally) thrown the world’s motorsport journalists into a frenzy when at the end of last season he announced that he was leaving Mercedes, and going to Ferrari. It had been one of the most difficult decisions he had ever made in his career. It was always big news when a driver switched teams, especially completely out of the blue. But not only had Benedikt been racing Formula 1 for years now, he’d won the 2014 World Championship with Mercedes, the very team he made his debut for. But yet he hadn’t felt right at his beloved team for a couple of seasons now, so he left in the hope of finding something better.

Benedikt still loved Mercedes, and he missed them. Maybe that was why he was struggling to leave his car and walk towards the paddock as a Ferrari driver. It wasn’t like he was meeting the team for the first time; he’d already done that back in January. And yet today he felt so much more nervous than that first day in Maranello.

“We have to walk in at some point, otherwise the team might send out a search and rescue” Jonas frowned looking at his watch that now read twenty past eight, with the session set to officially start at nine. Benni sighed and looked at himself in the rear-view mirror and deemed that his hair looked alright enough to get out the car. He swung open the rear passenger door and pulled out his rucksack and shut the door again swinging the bag over his shoulder with one hand and firmly pressing the lock button on the key with the other. He smoothed down his zipped up team jacket and made sure his paddock access pass was still hanging around his neck. He and Jonas nodded at each other before finally walking side by side out of the car park towards the paddock entrance.

The paddock was the large expanse behind the garages, and was fenced off to prevent hordes of fans from running riot. When the F1 circus rolled into town it was filled with the huge team motorhomes and engineering trucks at the European races, and smaller team buildings at the Asian and American circuits. Like every year, the two four day pre-season tests were taking place at the Circuit de Catalunya just outside Barcelona. But even for Spain it was freezing cold, emphasised by Jonas walking with his hands stuffed in his pockets and his shoulders almost hunched up to his ears.

They eventually arrived at the familiar paddock entrance, four silver turnstiles bookended by security guards sat under a large welcome sign that was dripping from the mornings early rain shower. Both Benni and Jonas scanned their red passes as they smiled at the security guards and walked into the paddock.

It definitely hadn’t changed since testing the year before; every building was in the exact same space, only as it was only testing there wasn’t even half the number of people usually milling about. There was the odd mechanic or two rushing over to their team’s garage, maybe one TV crew pre-filming a piece to camera for later. As always with the start of the first day of testing the paddock was mainly filled with photographers waiting to get the first picture of the drivers. That was partially why Benedikt had been so nervous. Today was the first day the world was going to see him as a Ferrari driver. And he was absolutely terrified.

Sure, just about every racing driver in the world wanted to drive for Ferrari, they were _the_ team in Formula 1. When people thought of F1, they thought of Ferrari, the only team that had been there since the first season in 1950. Of course, Benni had never actually thought he would end up at Ferrari, yet a spot opened up, they heard he was unhappy at Mercedes, and so they offered him a drive. Even now months later Benedikt was still surprised at how quickly he’s accepted the offer.

The black and silver Mercedes motorhome caught the corner of Benni’s eye, but he tried not to stare or even look as there were three photographers right in front of him; and he knew how a picture of him looking at the motorhome of his old team would look. He really wasn’t in the mood of getting in trouble on his first day.

After walking a few more paces the Ferrari motorhome came into view. It was three stories high and about the size of a small house, painted bright Ferrari red with large dark windows and the famous prancing horse shield above the door.

“Shall we?” Benedikt nervously sighed as him and Jonas neared the front door.

“After you” Jonas gave his driver a warm smile as they walked inside.

It was just as bustling as any other team would be on the first day of testing. The ground floor had a small bar in the corner and a few tables and chairs with two large plasma TVs on the walls that were currently blank but would soon be showing the cars out on track. Towards the back were offices and a staircase that went up to the first floor. Benedikt sighed as he took in his surroundings and for some reason he felt himself smile a little.

He didn’t feel too out of place, that probably had something to do with the fact both he and Jones were dressed head to toe in their Ferrari team gear. Although poor Jonas was in the full team uniform that included Ferrari red trousers and trainers. With Benedikt being a driver he was allowed to wear a pair of dark blue jeans instead, from Ferrari’s clothing line of course.

“Benni!” Just as Jonas and Benedikt were thinking of dumping their coats and bags in Benni’s driver room (wherever that was) a voice called out from the bottom of the stairs grabbing both their attention. The owner of the voice waved and walked over to meet them, Benedikt’s new team mate and fellow German Sami Khedira.

“You finally showed up” Sami smiled as he and Benedikt briefly hugged each other round the shoulders. The pair had briefly known each other from karting and the junior racing categories. Sami had actually made his F1 debut a couple of years before Benni but after many years of being stuck together in press conferences or at PR events for the German Grand Prix they became sort of friends. Now they were team mates Benedikt had actually started to properly get along well with his fellow German, but then again he always had the habit of getting along well with his team mates.

“Ah we were um…” Benni looked to Jonas in the hope he would pull an excuse as to why they were nearly late, because he wasn’t in the mood to admit to Sami that he’d spent almost twenty minutes sat in his car because he was nervous.

“Traffic?” Sami asked with a raised eyebrow, he could clearly see that Benedikt was trying to lie, and for whatever reason he was willing to go along with it. “It’s not like you haven’t met everyone already, you’ll be fine” Sami lowered his voice and gently patted Benni on the arm and smiled.

“Sami!” A loud high voice called out at the trio of Germans, with a petite blonde woman marching towards them tapping her watch. “The track goes green in fifteen minutes why on earth aren’t you in the garage?!” She gave Sami a strong glare and looked very unimpressed with the fact that Sami hadn’t even changed into his overalls yet. Sami opened and closed his mouth before quickly apologising and diving back up the stairs to get changed with his personal trainer Mesut following quickly behind.

“Sorry about that” The woman’s face softened into a small smile. Her accent was clearly English, although it had a strange twang to it that Benedikt couldn’t quite place. She had grey eyes that looked much kinder then when they had been glaring at Sami. “Funny I don’t think I’ve properly been able to introduce myself, I’m Louise” She smiled and stretched out her hand towards the German driver.

“Sami’s press officer right?” Benni asked and Louise nodded. He had seen her glued to Sami’s side in the press pen at every single race weekend for the past three years, but for some reason the two of them had never actually spoken. Which was strange considering how everyone in the paddock knew each other.

F1 seasons were always long, but in recent years it felt like each season had another race added in for good measure. It meant that the race weekends themselves took up half the year, and on top of that was PR events and appearances, pre and in season testing and days spent at the team’s factory. And that didn’t even count the endless hours spent in airports waiting to get to the next event on the agenda. It meant that the whole F1 paddock was one big travelling community and everyone knew what you’d had for breakfast and done on your week off without even asking.

“It’s nice to finally be able to meet you Benedikt, and welcome to Ferrari” Louise smiled warmly and brightly up at her new colleague before shaking hands with Jonas and welcoming him to the team as well. “I’d show you around but I’m on twitter duty this morning, I’m sure Mario is around here somewhere…” When Louise turned around to look at the people in the small seated area Benni pulled a face that Jonas definitely noticed. “He must be upstairs… I’ll show you to your room since I have to get Sami, providing he’s changed by now” Jonas and Benedikt followed Louise who walked faster than expected for someone so short. She almost ran up the stairs that went to the second floor and cast her eye over the room while the two Germans caught up with her. The second floor served mainly as the catering area, as well as a few managerial offices and another set of stairs leading to the top floor. With a smile she led them over to the side where the two drivers rooms were sat.

There was three rooms that sat in a row, Sami’s room, team principal Max Allegri’s office and right at the end was Benni’s driver room, complete with his name on a small plaque on the door. With Louise happy that Benedikt and Jonas weren’t going to get lost she rushed over to Sami’s room where he emerged fully changed into his racing gear. Sami pulled and adjusted his fireproof nomex shirt before putting his arms through his overalls and zipping them up fully.

“Good luck Sami” The two drivers clapped each other on the shoulder and smiled at each other.

“See you in the garage!” Sami jogged down the stairs with Louise and Mesut in tow, the latter carrying Sami’s helmet and drinks bottle.

With a small sigh Benedikt slid open the door to his driver room and stepped inside. Size wise it was no different to his room at Mercedes, just about every room in the team motorhome was the minimum size it needed to be to make sure everything would fit in its place. On one side of the room was massage table that doubled up as a sofa thanks to a small bit of padding on the wall above it. Opposite that was a small table with a mini fridge tucked underneath and hidden behind a wall was a small shower cubicle.

“So this is home then” Jonas sighed as he put his rucksack down on the table and started putting bottles of water into the mini fridge while Benni slid the door closed, making the small room feel even smaller since it really only just fit the two of them.

“I guess, Sami says the top floor is the nicest” Benedikt sat down on the massage table and ran a hand through his hair.

“At least they had the decency to put you right next to the food” Benni laughed, the bar where the team would queue for their breakfast, lunch and dinner was right next to his door.

“That’s something I suppose”

“Anyway” Jonas was now stood with his hands on his hips; neither men had taken off their jackets. “Shall we head over to the garage?”

“Good idea” Benni nodded and stood up again, this time following Jonas’ lead back down the stairs, weaving in and out through people as they left the Ferrari motorhome and walked back out into the paddock. Both men took in a long breath of the cold, yet fresh air and for the first time that day smiled. Everyone who they had made eye contact with at Ferarri smiled brightly at them and didn’t stare in shock. They both silently considered that a win.

After a few seconds they both started moving again heading towards the Ferrari garage. They only had to cross the empty stretch of tarmac between them and the engineering trucks before they would be back into safety away from leering eyes. Just as they were about to walk under the arch that joined the two trucks another voice called out to them.

“Benni!” Both Jonas and Benedikt turned round at the sound to see who it was, they both recognised the figure instantly. Clad in black trousers, a white shirt and black raincoat, jogging towards them with his dark hair bobbing up and down with a small smile on his face. Benedikt breathed his name with a small smile before properly turning round to greet his ex-race engineer with a beaming grin.

“Mats”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My description of the Ferrari motorhome was based on these two videos (1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qEhilfd6bk 2. https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2015/5/Home_from_home__Inside_an_F1_motorhome.html) if anyone is interested in how it looks IRL. The YouTube one is more recent but they filmed it with a fish eye camera so it might look a bit odd but it gives you a better idea of what some bits of the paddock actually look like.


	2. Getting On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I would have had this up a couple of days ago but I got distracted by you-know-what...  
> Anyway, this chapter is a bit long-winded (I've gotten in the habit of doing that lately), but thanks for all your lovely comments and kudos so far. I'm so glad people actually like this!  
> NB - I also got a bit distracted by making helmet designs for a few of the characters, which you can see over on my tumblr (which is also livelongandfangirling)

Mats still hadn’t forgotten the first day he’d met Benni, and he probably never would. It was a rainy day at Silverstone during the 2010 British Grand Prix weekend. He’d only been at the team for six months as one of the junior engineers who at every race weekend so far had been part of the factory team monitoring data in a dark room with a radio headset permanently fixed over his ears. And then come July one of the drivers’ engineers had to go on paternity leave and for some reason, Mats was called up to fill in. To this day he still didn’t know why he had been picked but he was so glad he had been.

On the Friday morning before first practice Mats had walked into the garage and was introduced to the driver he was set to be working with, and to Mats relief it was Höwedes. He didn’t know why but Mats preferred him to Müller, and over that weekend the pair of them just clicked. But what probably should have been noteworthy about that weekend was that during the race, where during the rain Mercedes were having no luck; Mats made a bold strategy call that the team reluctantly went along with. Benni pitted earlier than everyone else for dry tyres just at the right time and he ended up winning after running in a lowly seventh place for most of the race. It turned out to be Benedikt first ever win in Formula 1, and the following year Mats was promoted to the race team permanently as Benni’s race engineer. The rest, as they say, was history.

27 wins, many other pole positions and podiums. And of course, the 2014 World Drivers’ Championship.

And yet for some reason, the past two seasons Benedikt had become increasingly unhappy. After Mercedes had been humiliated by Ferrari in 2015 the team’s management had made the bold decision to end their policy of equal treatment to both their drivers, and instead decided to put all their focus behind Thomas, who had out performed Benedikt that season.

It was a move that resulted in Thomas (and Mercedes) winning back to back titles. Benni had scored the occasional race win, but it wasn’t enough. So towards the end of 2017, Benni took Mats out to dinner at one of their favourite restaurants in Tokyo prior to the Japanese Grand Prix that weekend, and he’d told Mats that with a heavy heart he was leaving Mercedes to join Ferrari. The fact that Mats was actually the first person to know didn’t mean much at the time.

It hurt then, knowing the man who had become one of Mats’ best friends was leaving the team they both loved and worked for. It hurt then how to Mats at least it came so out of the blue. It hurt then knowing they were never ever going to work together again. It hurt then, and it still hurt a lot now.

But when on his way to the Mercedes garage with Thomas on the first day of the first pre-season test he saw Benni walking to the Ferrari garage with Jonas, he told Thomas to go on without him as he jogged over to his ex-driver and old friend.

“Mats” Benedikt’s face split into a bright grin and when Mats was in arms reach the pair embraced each other in a tight hug. It probably shouldn’t have lasted as long as it did but neither of them minded. They hadn’t seen each other since Benedikt’s last day at the Mercedes factory back in early December.

It was Jonas clearing his throat that caused the two mean to pull apart but keep their hands on the other’s shoulders as they smiled at each other for the first time in a long time.

“It’s so good to see you!” Benedikt smiled brightly and gave one of Mats’ shoulders a strong squeeze before dropping his arms back by his side. Mats could swear he felt a blush creep into his cheeks as he smiled back.

“It’s good to see you too, not sure what I make of all the red though” Mats jokingly pulled a face as he looked up and down at Benni’s red trainers, Ferrari branded jeans, and red Ferrari team shirt peeking out from his zipped up team jacket that had ‘B. Höwedes’ printed in white under a sponsor logo. He’d already seen the promotional pictures of Benni in his Ferrari overalls on the day of the Ferrari car launch, but seeing him dressed in Ferrari red in person felt even more strange than seeing those pictures for the first time, now it truly felt real that Benedikt was a Ferrari driver.

“At least neither of you have to wear these” Jonas pulled at the pockets of his red trousers almost in disgust; it earned a small chuckle from Mats who clapped the personal trainer on the shoulder.

“Anyway um…” Mats sighed and ran a hand through his hair making look unruly rather than its usual styled mess. “I should get going before Jogi comes looking for me. It’s really great to see you though” Mats tried his best to smile despite the fact he didn’t want to head back to his team knowing Benni wouldn’t be there waiting for him. “I really hope you have a good season”

“You too Mats” With a small smile and a wave Benedikt and Jonas walked through the Ferrari engineering trucks and straight into his new team’s garage. After a couple of seconds of self-composure Mats turned on his heels and marched over to the Mercedes garage where Thomas was stood at the back chatting to his long serving personal trainer Manuel.

“Ah there he is!” Thomas exclaimed loudly causing Mats to turn round startled. After taking in a deep breath Mats went over to Thomas and briefly went over the plan for Thomas’ first run in the car before he walked straight out of the garage, across the pitlane and up onto the Mercedes pitwall where he took his seat and slid his radio headset back over his ears.

Back to work Mats, he told himself. He had to get used to the new normal eventually.

 

Jonas and Benedikt walked slowly into the Ferrari garage after their brief encounter with Mats. The entrance corridor was pretty narrow, and only just managed to fit both of them side by side. Jonas was ready to turn and walk into the back of the garage when a small chuckle from Benedikt made him pause to see what his driver was amused at.

On the back wall that faced the proper entrance of the Ferrari garage were rows and rows of backlit square pigeon holes that housed all of the team member’s radio headsets. There was so many of them that they were lit up in three different columns of green, white and red; an exact copy of the Italian flag.

“Just in case you forgot who you’re racing for” Jonas smirked, it was very Ferrari, and he had to admit he did kind of like it. Benni just hummed and scanned the side of each headset that had a name and initial printed in yellow on one side. After a few seconds of looking Benedikt smiled and picked up two headsets from their hooks, he handed one to Jonas that had ‘J. Hector’ on it.

They both slid their headsets round the back of their neck as they entered the main garage area. It was split in two down the middle by a number of computer screens resting on a high table. One side was empty, but had a rectangle outline printed on the floor with Benedikt’s name at the front above a small Ferrari shield. On the other side was the new SF71H, each team only brought one car to testing and a small mountain of spare parts.

The car was emblazoned with the Number 6 in black on the small white fin that stuck out the back of the engine cover, and on the nosecone on a white trapezoid to stand out from the bright red paint that covered the rest of the car. Even Jonas, who didn’t really think of himself as a car person, felt slightly taken a back at seeing the new 2018 Ferrari in person for the first time.

“Told you it was pretty” Benedikt smirked as he turned to look at Jonas.

From the angled rear wing the read of the car widened into the sidepods, cockpit and engine air box intake that sat right above the drivers head before the car narrowed again into the nose and front end of the car, with the ever intricately detailed front wing sitting in front of the two front tyres that were currently wrapped up in tyre blankets. The other new thing on the car was the halo head protection device that looked more like a flip flop, Ferrari had painted their halo the same shade of red as the rest of the car making it seamlessly blend in with the rest of the bodywork.

“You know for once I think I have to agree with you” Jonas eventually prized his eyes off the Ferrari when Sami clambered in. For some reason Benedikt was looking very pleased with himself that his personal trainer approved of his new car.

“Ah there you are!” A loud Italian accented voice echoed through Benni’s side of the garage as Ferrari Team Principal Max Allegri came into view. Jonas couldn’t help but notice as Benedikt straightened his posture somewhat when he reached out to shake his new boss’ hand, for some reason Jonas found himself doing the same.

“Buongiorno” Benni greeted Allegri with a bright smile. “This is Jonas Hector, my personal trainer”

“Nice to meet you” Jonas put out a hand and received a very strong handshake from the Italian in return.

“Ah, another one from Hintsa. The same as Mesut?” Jonas nodded, Hinsta Performance was the agency that many of the grid’s drivers hired their personal trainers from. He had worked with Benni since 2012, and happily said yes when he asked Jonas to come to Ferrari with him. “Well in that case I’m sure you’ll happily fit in” Max smiled at Jonas before turned to Benni to run him through the team’s running plan for the morning right as Sami drove his car out the garage, the roar from the hybrid engine just about drowning everything else out.

As Sami’s mechanics put away the tyre blanked and front and rear jacks Mesut briefly came over.

“How’s it going?” He asked in German.

“Good, Benni’s still a bit nervous but he’ll be fine by lunchtime. And Sami?”

“Just happy to be back in the car” Mesut almost sounded relieved but Jonas knew the feeling. There was always a point during the Winter off-season, weeks before the car launches and testing, that the drivers would start to get restless over their lack of driving. According to Mesut Sami was one of the more restless ones and often hired out an indoor karting track to pass the time. “If you need anything just let me know” Mesut patted Jonas on the arm with a friendly smile before darting off to the back of Sami’s side of the garage to put away his drinks bottle and watch one of the overhead TV screens.

Jonas looked over his shoulder to see that Benedikt had joined his new team of engineers and was looking at a computer screen already taking notes in the small pad he always kept in his pocket. Happy that his driver was going to be keeping himself busy Jonas joined Mesut and leaned against the bench seat at the back of the garage and watched as the number six Ferrari run its first laps of the year.

 

As soon as the morning session got underway everything started to feel an awful lot more normal. Benedikt sat with his engineers for the first couple of hours, moving between the garage and the pitwall to look over the various data screens. He took notes, occasionally providing input on what kind of set up would work on the car. It almost felt as if he was starting to fit in.

After a while Benni found himself yawning, so when Sami had come in after his second run he excused himself to the motorhome and grabbed himself a coffee right as Louise and Benedikt’s new press officer Mario walked in carrying a tray of steaming espressos.

For some reason, Benedikt had the reputation of ‘nicest guy in the paddock’ always smiling at people, making the time for a conversation no matter who they were. And while it was true that despite how ruthless a sport F1 was that he still liked to be nice to people, there was one person he hadn’t exactly clicked with. Ferrari press officer Mario Mandžukić.

The man seemed to wear a permanent frown on his face, with his brow furrowed and his eyebrows semi-knit together. And as nice as Benni had been to him, when they were first introduced at the factory and at a few media events since then, he acted as if he almost didn’t care or would much rather be working somewhere else.

The sound of someone clearing their throat behind Benedikt’s table caused him to turn round where he was faced with a very unamused Mario. Benni smiled up at him, very sweetly, and tilted his head to the side as he greeted him.

“Mario” Judging by the look on his face, he was very unamused at Benedikt being so nice to him.

“Your personal trainer is looking for you” Mario huffed in his usual flat, monotone voice that sometime sounded slightly mumbly. “He’s on the viewing terrace” Before Benedikt could say thank you, Mario pulled what looked like one of the team’s social media phones out of his pocket and left. Tweeting about laps counts and how grey the clouds were was much more interesting, apparently.

With a frown Benni left his seat and went over to the bar to get Jonas a cup of tea before he left the motorhome again, and instead of heading for the Ferrari garage he walked over to the far end of the pit building and went inside, slowly climbing the stairs to the very top where a set of glass double doors led to the viewing terrace that sat above the garages.

“I know you don’t like watching from up here until after you’ve driven the car, but I thought you could use the space” Jonas explained as he accepted his paper cup of tea with one hand and adjusted his glasses with the other.

“Not a bad idea” Benni sighed as he looked out at the view in front of him. From where him and Jonas was stood they could see past the start-finish line and all the way down to turns one and two to their right, with the rest of the main straight and final chicane on their left. Opposite them was the main grandstand that was filled with just a small scattering of fans. The testing days were so long and uneventful that only a handful of diehard F1 fans attended. A small group of five suddenly started waving a German and Ferrari flag that had been stitched together when they realised it was Benedikt standing on the terrace. Benni beamed as he happily waved back before taking a quick picture to post on his social media later.

After another few hours the official lunch break came and the track fell silent as all ten teams filed into their motorhomes for an hours rest before the drivers got back into their cars again for the afternoon session. By the end of the day when the chequered flag fell at exactly six in the evening Sami had finished the session third fastest completing almost a hundred laps. In the engineers debrief the team was certainly delighted with having a problem free first day, and Sami was reasonably happy with how the car felt.

“The handling could be a bit better, the rear tends to slide on the exit of a few corners, but apart from that… it feels good. Definitely better than last year” Sami shrugged as him and Benni left the engineers truck to head back to the motorhome. The sun was only just starting to think about setting and the grey clouds from the morning had disappeared, it was turning out to be a nice (but still chilly) evening. “See you back at the hotel, and good luck for tomorrow” Sami smiled and clapped Benni on the shoulder as they walked back into the motorhome before he dashed upstairs to grab his things.

Benedikt followed behind but at a much slower pace, and only reached his driver room just as Sami was saying goodbye to his mechanics and leaving with Louise and Mesut. He gave them a small wave as they went back down the stairs, before sliding open the door to his driver room to grab his rucksack.

“Ready?” Jonas appeared with a small smile, swinging his own bag over his shoulder. Benedikt nodded, noting his overalls and fireproofs folded neatly on the table, and stepped out the room sliding the door shut behind him. He wished everyone a good evening as him and Jonas left the bright red motorhome, walking back through the paddock where they scanned their passes at the turnstiles and walked towards the car park. “I told you you’d survive today” Jonas smiled reassuringly with a small chuckle.

“I know…” Benni sighed, admitting defeat that once again his personal trainer was right. “I just hadn’t felt that nervous since 2010”

“When you first started?”

“Yeah, I had no idea switching teams made you feel like a rookie all over again” Benedikt shook his head with a small laugh and pulled his car keys out his pocket when they reached the car. The team had offered him a Ferrari Portofino (which wasn’t even available for sale yet) as his road car for testing, but Benni politely turned it down and went for an Alfa Romeo Giulia instead. When he’d collected his car at the hotel he wasn’t even surprised to see that it was painted Ferrari red.

Both men flung their bags onto the rear passenger seats and climbed in the front with Benedikt driving and they left the circuit, heading back towards Barcelona where their hotel was situated a half hour drive away.

Since the whole team had dinner before the engineer’s debrief Benni and Jonas went straight up to their rooms, with Jonas telling his driver to have an early night and be up at six.

Benedikt sighed when he shut the door to his hotel room behind him and leaned his head back for a few seconds before putting his rucksack down on the chair in the corner of his room. He took off his team raincoat and hung it up in the wardrobe and pulled off his sweatshirt and t-shirt, carefully folding them and putting them back into his suitcase. He picked up one of the black bags that was on the floor and brought it with him over to the bed where he sat down in the middle cross legged. He loosened the cord that fastened it shut and pulled the fabric away from the bag’s sole contents.

He couldn’t see his reflection in his helmet visor because it was still covered with its protective paper strip, but he could just about see himself in the reflection of his shiny helmet. Benedikt knew he was going to keep his helmet design the same when he joined Ferrari; a dark almost navy blue faded down to a brighter royal blue at the bottom. The only difference was the huge change in logos that covered it. Out was the Mercedes three pointed star and in its place was the bright yellow Ferrari shield, complete with the famous black prancing horse.

Benni turned the helmet round in his hands and brushed his thumb over the shield that was on the back of his helmet. It was almost mind boggling to think about the history and prestige that was associated with that one image, but then again the Mercedes star also carried a lot of weight with it, just not so much in Formula 1.

With a small sigh Benedikt placed his helmet back in its protective bag and set it back down on the ground with the others before he got changed and climbed into bed. He stared up at the ceiling for a little while, the image of his number four on a Ferrari the last thing his mind saw before he went to sleep.

 

 

The next morning brought much better weather; while it was still cold any grey clouds had left and had been replaced with fluffy white ones, with the sun happily peeking out in between them. Jonas and Benedikt arrive at the circuit an hour earlier than the day before and ended up arriving with the rest of the paddock, with mechanics from a few different teams greeting Benni and Jonas with a bright smile, and wishing the Ferrari driver well for his first day in the car.

Sami and Mesut joined the pair for breakfast in the top floor of the Ferrari motorhome; there it was much quieter than everywhere else and provide a stunning view of the circuit from the large windows.

“You’ll be fine Benni” Sami reassured his team mate as he down the remainder of his orange juice. “Unless you’ve forgotten how to drive over the winter” Sami teased causing everyone else to laugh.

“I got here didn’t I?” Benedikt chuckled and Sami clapped him on the back. “Anyway, I need to go, quick engineers meeting” Benni politely excused himself and picked up his notebook and pen from the table before dashing down the stairs where he met his new race engineer Giorgio. They chatted as they dived into the engineers truck, both of them forgetting their jackets, so far Benni seemed to like Giorgio. While his short shaven hair made him look slightly more aggressive than your usual Italian, he was an incredibly friendly person who seemed to be making doubly sure that his driver was fitting into the team.

Soon enough the meeting was done and Benni was back in the motorhome, sat in his driver room still in his team shirt and jeans, staring at the pile of neatly folded clothes on the table opposite him. A single look at his watch forced Benedikt to stand up and almost completely undress and pull on his fireproofs. He pulled and tugged at them until he felt completely comfortable in the skin-tight nomex that left his hands and neck free. He gently lifted up the red overalls, the sleeves and legs cascading out from their folds as Benedikt laid them back down. They were the same shade of Ferrari red as the car, and had the same brand logos and pattern on the side as his team gear, only right on the waist was a small German flag, with his name written in white next to it.

He dragged the zip down to the bottom and gently put his overalls on limb-by-limb and pulled the zip almost all the way back up to his neck. Benedikt sat back down on his massage table and pulled out his red racing boots from underneath and thankfully put them on the correct feet.

“You ready?” Jonas asked after gently knocking on the door.

“Yeah” Benni called out and the door slid open and Jonas stepped in. “How do I look?” He asked with a small sigh, looking at his personal trainer almost nervously.

“Like a Ferrari driver” Jonas grinned and picked up Benedikt’s helmet from the table.  “Come on let’s go” He put a reassuring arm round Benni as they went downstairs and walked back out into the paddock heading for the garage.

As the Mercedes motorhome caught Benni’s eye he remembered about the good luck text that Mats had sent him that morning, and he instantly felt better as he led Jonas over to his side of the garage where his mechanics and engineers were already working away.

“Session starts in ten, Chellio says the initial checks look good so we’ll have you in the car in a few minutes” Benedikt’s number one mechanic Andrea smiled brightly at his driver as he walked over from the front of the car. “She’s beautiful isn’t she” Benni could swear he heard Andrea let out a lovesick sigh as he admired the Ferrari. “But then again every Ferrari is beautiful” Andrea chuckled, Benni smiled and nodded in agreement. Benedikt, Andrea and Jonas chatted for a few minutes before Giorgio came over from the pitwall saying it was time for Benni to get in the car. The two Italians left, leaving Benedikt to put in his radio in ears and plug them into the attachment on his overalls. Just as he was about to pull his balaclava over his head, Sami dived into the garage to wish him luck with a clap on the shoulder and a friendly smile.

He finally pulled on his balaclava and tucked it into the top of his overalls, finally zipping them up fully before placing his HANS device around the back of his neck and putting his helmet on, fasting the chinstrap tightly and clipping in his HANS device before he walked over to his car where Jonas had already put his red gloves

Benedikt climbed into his Ferrari for the first time since his seat fitting and placed his hands on the underside of the halo as he adjusted himself in his seat before he was happy to be strapped in. Claudio, another one of Benni’s mechanics, leaned down into the cockpit and fastened his six-point seatbelt leaving Benedikt to tighten the straps to his liking while Claudio plugged in the wire to the radio output.

“Radio check. Radio check Benedikt can you hear me?” Giorgio’s voice came on over the radio as soon as Claudio gave the pitwall a thumbs up.

“Loud and clear”

“Okay, session starts in two. Fire up the car” Despite the custom fitted in ears, and helmet padding, the roar of the Ferrari engine was all that filled Benni’s ears for a few seconds before it dies down to is usual muted grumble. Two mechanics pushed away the screens at the front of the garage (a feature teams only used during testing) and Benedikt could finally see the pitlane, as well as a couple of film crews and more than a few photographers waiting for the number four Ferrari to emerge.

Andrea walked a few steps backwards into the pitlane, with Benedikt’s mechanics removing the tyre blankets and lowering the car off its jacks simultaneously. The mechanic looked once, then twice over each shoulder before beckoning Benni forward with his hand, the all clear signal that he could leave the garage.

Benedikt gently put his foot on the throttle, before accidently doing a quick burnout as he slowly drove down the pitlane, the light at the end turning from red to green as he approached it, meaning that the second day of testing was underway and Benni could drive out on track for the very first time in his new car.

This was it, after signing the contract back in October, to announcing it to the world a month later, to the official car launch just two weeks ago, Benedikt Höwedes was now officially a driver for Scuderia Ferrari.

 

“It was incredible, amazing even! I know I was only second fastest but… oh my god. Dare I say it the car feels better than the last two Mercedes I’ve driven, and they were title winning cars! But the team’s good, my mechanics and engineers seem to like me anyway… yeah Sami too, everyone’s been really nice… anyway we’re at the car but I can call you again when we get back to the hotel?…  okay, love you too, bye!” Benni hung up his phone call with a sigh and a small smile after excitedly filling in his parents about his first day in the car.

“Everything fine back home?” Jonas asked as he climbed into the front passenger seat. He let out a small yawn, it had been another long day but seeing Benedikt so happy seemed to make it all worthwhile. If Jonas was being honest he hadn’t seen Benni smile so much since 2014.

“Yeah, Mum and Dad say hi” Benni grinned as he started the car and fastened his seatbelt. “They can’t make it to Australia though, too far to travel. But they’re thinking about Bahrain” He added as they drove out the circuit car park. “What a day” Benni smiled with a sigh when they were on the motorway.

“Second fastest and just over a hundred laps, very impressive” Jonas spoke while cleaning his glasses with his shirt, he glanced up at his driver to see that, unsurprisingly, he was still smiling. “I’m glad you had a good first day”

“Yeah me too” Benni smiled as he slowed the car when they encountered some traffic. Thankfully they’d had dinner at the circuit again so they were in no hurry to get back to the hotel.

“Who do I feel like you’re going to make me regret what I said about this being a mistake last year?” Jonas said after a few minutes of silence. When Benedikt had told Jonas of his decided to switch teams he was definitely surprised, and he worried that it was going to be a bad idea. Now after only two days of testing were those doubts finally beginning to go away. Benni just chuckled and patted Jonas on the shoulder.

“That is exactly what I intend to do Jonas” Benedikt grinned before moving the car forward now that the traffic was starting to clear.

The rest of the drive back was chilled, they listened to some songs on the radio and chatted about a few menial things. All the while Jonas couldn’t help but notice just how happy Benedikt was, he smiled even when he wasn’t talking, his laugh wasn’t held back or subdued and his shoulders were no longer hunched or fallen, something Jonas hadn’t seen in his driver for a long, long time. He couldn’t help but wonder, as they walked into the hotel with Benni telling a funny story, if Ferrari had done the impossible and brought the ‘Old Benedikt’ back. Jonas certainly hoped that it was true, and he hoped even more that it stayed just like that.

 

The remaining six days of pre-season testing couldn’t have gone more smoothly. Ferrari did high-fuel runs, low-fuel runs, race sims, quali sims, they even had the time to try plenty of new parts that looked to be going onto the car for the first race that was now just two weeks away.

However Mercedes seemed to have an even better run of things, and ended up setting the fastest time on everyday bar one, the last day where Benedikt set the fastest lap time of both pre-season tests.

Instead of flying back home late Benedikt decided to wait until the next morning before leaving Barcelona, and at just after seven he and Jonas were stood at the reception desk checking out of their rooms. To Jonas’ relief they were wearing their usual travelling clothes of jeans, trainers and a comfy jumper with no red in sight.

Just as the pair had thanked the receptionists and were about to leave one of the lift doors opened and a loud, familiar voice boomed out of it.

“Benni!” The loud voice belonged to Thomas, who nearly tripped walking out of the lift alongside Manuel. “Old friend it’s so good to see you!” Thomas grinned at the sight of his old team mate and walked over to him with his arms out wide; Benedikt just smiled and happily accepted the hug. “I almost didn’t believe it when Mats said how happy you were, but he’s right!” Benedikt never once blamed Thomas for the past two seasons, it was never his decision to make, and if it had been Thomas wouldn’t have agreed to it in the first place. “It’s going to be so strange not having you as my team mate”

“Very” Benedikt nodded in agreement with a small sigh, as strange as it was to think of Thomas as a proper rival now, a part of him relished the prospect of fighting him for the title.

“Well good luck Benni, I hope you have a good season”

“You too Mull” The two men smiled as they shook hands, and laughed when Thomas joked about keeping a spot on the podium warm for him in Melbourne as Benni and Jonas left the hotel.

Melbourne. The first race of the season was just two not so short weeks away.


	3. Down Under

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Race 1/21: Melbourne, Australia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back at last! (a very busy summer, plus graduating uni and writers block is not a very creative mix). I did at least have plenty of time to put some major planning in for the entire season's worth of race results, I still haven't decided if a want to have a race per chapter or something else, so we'll see how that goes. But I'm really happy to be writing again (especially this story in particular).  
> Huge apologies for the mega gap between chapters... and this is is well over 6k words long (as it's the first race of season I let myself off, I'll try and be a little bit more lenient with future chapters.  
> As promised, I'll try my best to include any terms and definitions in the end of chapter notes for the non-F1 fans (if I forget something and you have no idea what I'm talking about, please leave me a comment!), I've decided to include the championship standings as well because no one needs to do maths while fic reading.  
> Below is also a list of the teams and drivers that will be part of the fic (the teams are real but outside Mercedes and Ferrari all the drivers are OC's since I didn't want to include the actual real life drivers in this).  
> Enough waffling, hope you guys enjoy the new chapter.  
> __________________________________________  
> Teams & Drivers  
> Mercedes (GER)  
> \- Thomas Müller #1/#25 (GER)  
> \- Matthias Ginter #28 (GER)  
> Ferrari (ITA)  
> \- Sami Khedira #6 (GER)  
> \- Benedikt Höwedes #4 (GER)  
> Red Bull (AUT)  
> \- Noah Martin #3 (AUS)  
> \- Liam Peters #33 (NED)  
> Force India (GBR)  
> \- Benjamin Lambert #31 (FRA)  
> \- Eric Lopez #11 (MEX)  
> McLaren (GBR)  
> \- Joel Fernandez #14 (ESP)  
> \- Loïc Martens #2 (BEL)  
> Renault (FRA)  
> \- Daniel Martinez #55 (ESP)  
> \- Alexander Schmitz #27 (GER)  
> Haas (USA)  
> \- Frédéric Laurent #8 (FRA)  
> \- Erik Andersen #20 (DEN)  
> Toro Rosso (ITA)  
> \- Louis Bisset #10 (FRA)  
> \- Scott Roberts #28 (NZL)  
> Williams (GBR)  
> \- Chris Grant #18 (CAN)  
> \- Nikita Petrov #35 (RUS)  
> Sauber (SUI)  
> \- Alex Karlsson #9 (SWE)  
> \- Gérard Deschamps #16 (MON)

Benedikt sighed as the film plying on the small TV screen in front of him finally ended. He took off his headphones and rubbed his hands across his face, leaning as far back as he could in his chair. He looked round his small business class pod before checking his watch that he had changed to Australian time as soon as he started the 22 hour journey to the other side of the world.

Every year it felt like the journey to Melbourne got longer and longer, just over 6 hours from Zurich to Abu Dhabi, a three hour layover with a thirteen and a half hour flight that arrived into Melbourne at quarter to seven on Monday night Australian time. Just thinking about it made Benni feel exhausted.

They were only a few hours into their second flight but Benni was already sick of his seat and decided to leave his enclosed pod for a quick walk along the cabin to stretch his legs. When the door slid open Business Class was almost pitch black with the exception of a few barely glowing lights on the floor and overhead. Benedikt huffed a long sigh and stretched his arms above his head before slowly and quietly walking down the cabin in his socks (he hated wearing his shoes on long flights). Every few steps he’d occasionally wriggle his shoulders and stretch his neck from side-to-side, as nice as flying business class was, endless hours on a plane would make anyone feel cramped. He was itching to go on a long run round Downtown Melbourne the second they landed.

When Benedikt reached the end of Business Class he yawned and took a few moments before turning to go back to his seat, only to walk right into someone that was coming out the toilet. Benni quietly hissed as the person accidentally stood on his toes, trying his best to not wake up any nearby passengers.

“Ack, sorry I wasn’t looking where I was going” Benni spoke in English and took a few steps back holding his hands up in apology. The person who he had clattered into turned round and rubbed their eyes, but Benedikt still recognised them from their mop of messy brown hair. “Mats?” The Ferrari driver raised an eyebrow at his former race engineer, wondering just what he was doing on Ferrari’s flight.

“Oh it’s you, hello” Mats replied in German, looking very bleary eyed. He yawned and leaned his head against the now closed toilet door, a stray curl or two falling in front of his eyes.

“Funny I thought it was only Ferrari people on this flight” Benni spoke in a hushed tone, he’d prefer it if he wasn’t recognised when he was walking around in his socks.

“Yeah we um… decided to fly out a day early. Apparently it’ll make us acclimatise to the time zone better” Mats spoke slowly, as if he was falling back asleep already.

“We?”

“Mercedes”

“Ah” Benni nodded folding his arms across his chest. So he wasn’t just sharing a flight with his new team but his old one as well. Wonderful. He thought about leaving Mats to go back to his seat, since the engineer looked like he had already fallen asleep on the toilet door when his brain thought up something else entirely. “Do you want to grab some dinner this week? Sometime before Thursday?”

“Dinner?” Mats was suddenly stood upright, as if Benni’s suggestion had pulled him out of his doze.

“Yeah, just to catch-up you know? We’ve barely spoken since testing let alone December” Benedikt smiled hopefully at his friend, he hoped that the fact they were now at rival teams wouldn’t stop them from still being friends. Mats appeared to contemplate the offer for a few moments before replying.

“Yeah… yeah sure, why not” Benni’s face lit up instantly, as he pulled out his phone to set up a reminder.

“I think I have some press events on Wednesday afternoon, but I’m free after that. Will our usual place do?” He asked as he typed a reminder into his phone. Mats just shrugged and nodded, appearing to be falling asleep again. “Great, I’ll book a table when we land” With a pat on the arm and a bright, charming grin Benni quickly walked back to his set and shut the door to his little pod. He sighed, this time with a smile on his face, feeling genuinely happy for the first time all flight.

 

The bistro that Mats and Benni had eaten at on the Wednesday night of every first race week of the year without fail since 2011 was in just in Melbourne’s Northside, far enough away from the circuit that they probably wouldn’t see anyone from the paddock, but close enough to the city centre that you could still get a feel of Melbourne’s atmosphere. Mats had been the one to find it years ago after a frantic two-hour long Google search after Benedikt had suggested the pair have a nice dinner to celebrate Mats’ first full season as part of the race team. The menu offered a wide range of European and Asian dishes, and ever since Mats (without wanting to be a stereotypical German) discovered that the chef made the best Bratwurst outside of Munich, him and Benni agreed to return every year to have dinner together, and Benni switching teams was not going to get in the way of a good tradition.

Mats had been the first to arrive (the perks of being an engineer meant he had no extra commitments outside the paddock on a race weekend). As soon has he opened the door he took in the sound of happily chatting customers, the oak floors, brick and paint covered walls and the string lights that hung from the copper pipes on the ceiling. It would be wrong to say that the place never changed (nothing every really stays the same for long) but despite the occasional redecoration the bistro still kept its warm charm that Mats seemed to love.

He took a step forwards and smiled at the Maître d’, unknowingly wringing his hands together. He explained that his friend had reserved a table but was running late (the one and only media event Benni was attending had overrun, not that the Maître d’ needed to know).

“Yes, Mr Höwedes said you’d be arriving separately, it’s not a problem I’ll show you to your table” The young man who was clearly a local smiled brightly at Mats and picked up two menus on the way to the square table that was pushed against one of the walls. Mats pulled out the chair that faced the front of the bistro and ordered a pint of his favourite beer as the Maître d’ left with a polished smile.

The bistro was bustling, but not busy, it wasn’t the place you needed to make a reservation for but Benni insisted on doing so anyway. It was something he seemed to oddly enjoy so Mats never really questioned it.

After about fifteen minutes, as Mats was halfway through his pint of beer, the main entrance door opened for the third time and when Mats looked up from his phone, he finally saw Benni beaming away, chatting to the Maitre d’ as was led over to his table. Mats gave a small wave before standing up and pulled his friend into a tight hug. Benedikt ordered a pint of lemonade with lime cordial, which arrived after a couple of minutes.

“I’m so sorry I’m late” Benni sighed as he took a sip of his drink. “It was only supposed to be a _small_ Q &A after the sponsor presentation but the tifosi are…” His voice trailed off, not knowing exactly how to describer Ferrari’s ever present, ever loyal and ever fanatical fan base.

“The tifosi?” It really was the only word that could be used to describe them. Benedikt laughed in agreement as he picked up his menu and started browsing through the dishes on offer, he insisted on having a different dish each time they visited, while Mats always ordered the Bratwurst with chips and gravy. The irony of working for a German team based in the UK meant that he often did miss the delights of home.

As their food arrived (Benni had ordered a pasta dish with pesto) and they finally got round to eating, the atmosphere between them was like nothing had changed. They carried on talking, joking about random things that happened at testing, and as Benedikt had promised, catching up on the other person’s life and goings on. And yet again Mats was reminded that come Thursday, in the engineers briefing, Benni would not be sat across from him in his white team shirt and silver headset. He’d be in another building entirely, wearing a much more noticeable colour.

Benni seemed happier though, happier than Mats had seen him for a long time, that was something at least.

Still, Mats didn’t expect to miss him this much.

“I’ll pay for this one” Benedikt spoke, long after their plates had been cleared and they’d polished off a post-dinner espresso. “Funny this is usually where you start protesting to split the bill” Benni teased with a smirk as he pulled his bank card from his pocket.

“Well…” Mats huffed trying to pull an excuse out of the air. “This was your idea” Benedikt chuckled and left his seat, clapping Mats on the shoulder as he headed over to the bar to pay the bill. As Benni happily chatted away with the staff at the bar Mats sighed, they’d still see each other; the 21 race season did take up half the weekends of the year after all. But they wouldn’t be able to have lunch together anymore, drive into the circuit together, or be on the same flight. Everything would be the same in some aspects, yet so different in others.

“Do you want to walk back to the hotel or get a taxi?” Benedikt returned, seemingly out of the blue, softly placing a hand on Mats’ shoulder.

“We’re staying at different hotels remember?” Mars frowned, pushing himself out of his chair as a dawning look of realisation washed across Benni’s face. Each team had a hotel they preferred to stay in on each race weekend, ideally they usually were free of any of the other nine teams. At some races, where nearby hotels were in short supply, the teams and drivers would split themselves between one or two hotels; but in Melbourne, Ferrari stayed at the Novotel while Mercedes stayed at the Crown Towers.

They decided on a compromise, a taxi down to the docklands where they’d walk across one of Melbourne’s bridges, before going their separate ways back to their own hotels. Mats and Benni had, at least, agreed to split the taxi fare and they slowly walked along Kings Bridge, taking in the view of night time Melbourne. While Mats was taking the same pictures he took every year, Benni leaned against the railing, looking out over the river with a sigh, Mats’ hotel looming behind them.

“Tomorrow’s going to be crazy” Benedikt suddenly looked like he had something on his mind, and a weight on his shoulders – the fact that he was yet another successful German driving for Ferrari, perhaps.

“You’ll be fine” Mats pocketed his phone with one hand and patted Benni’s shoulder with the other. “You’ve done loads of press conferences before”

“But none as a Ferrari driver” Benni sighed again, deeper and heavier this time, and looked down at his shoes. Maybe the weight of the great Ferrari name was playing on his mind too. Mats shook his head and took a step forward to lean against the railing as well, his upper arm pressed flush against Benedikt’s.

“No one wins a championship, or twenty seven races, just because they’re lucky. You’re a good driver Benni” _Brilliant even_ , Mats wanted to add. “I’m sure you’ll make the tifosi very proud” Benedikt finally looked up again, this time with a smile on his face and a hint of pink in his cheeks.

“I’m sorry I had to leave” Benni smiled apologetically, completely oblivious to the fact that those words hit Mats like a brick to the chest. “It wasn’t that I was suddenly unhappy working with _you_ , or with the mechanics or even Thomas, I was just… not happy with everything else” Benedikt waved a hand in the air as he spoke, he’d definitely picked that up from Italy already. That made Mats smile.

“Well, we all miss you” Mats spoke softly, and with complete sincerity. Benni gave a warm smile and took half a step forward, wrapping his arms round Mats in a tight hug.

“And I’ll miss you too Mats” He could swear he heard a small crack in Benni’s voice as he leaned back, keeping his hands on Mats’ shoulders for a few seconds.

“I know I shouldn’t say this but… give everyone hell”

“I will” With a nod and a smile the pair hugged again, and for the sake of social media took one picture together before Benni made his way along the promenade, back towards the Novotel Melbourne South Wharf, back towards his new team.

God this season was going to be tougher than Mats had thought it would be.

 

“And today in the first Drivers Press Conference of 2018 we have, Benedikt Höwedes from Ferrari, Matthias Ginter from Mercedes, Noah Martin from Red Bull and Thomas Müller from Mercedes. Noah, as it’s your home race we’ll start with you…” As the moderator asked Noah the first question, Thomas (who was sat on Benni’s left) leaned in and quietly whispered in conversation to his old team mate.

“I didn’t think I’d be seeing you so soon old friend” Benni stifled a small chuckle, just in case anyone though he was disrespecting Noah at his home race, and instead patted Thomas on the arm.

“Missed you too Mull” The small exchange made Thomas smile, and just as he was about to say something else, the moderator smiled and turned to Benni.

“Benedikt, it’s arguably just a special weekend for you, your first as a Ferrari driver. I can imagine there must be a lot going through your mind right now. But with there being such a history with very successful German champions at Ferrari, is that adding any extra pressure to you?”

“Not really,” Benni shrugged with a bright smile. “In fact it’s going to be a huge honour working with Sami” A small ripple of laugher made its way through the pack room of journalists, it gave Benni a moment to relax and compose himself before giving a serious answer. “I mean you know, when you think of Ferrari you do tend to think of Michael winning five of his seven championships there, and of course being German he was the guy that we all looked up to as kids. And it is of course a privilege to be one of the lucky people that gets to drive one of the red cars, but I mean, testing went pretty positively and my mechanics seem to like me, so we’ll see” Benni beamed again, he was genuinely excited to start the new season, and to start his new journey with Ferrari.

“Do you think you’ll be challenging Thomas and Mercedes for the drivers title this year?” A protentional championship battle, that was what was scaring Benni at the moment. But for the press he pinned on a confident smile and squared up his shoulders.

“I hope so”

 

The press conference ended after about twenty minutes of the gathered press asking the same questions they did at the start of ever season: ‘How do you think you’ll settle into your new team?’ ‘Can you fight for the title?’ ‘How does it feel to be racing again?’. The Press Conferences always were incredibly dull.

“Hey Ben!” A loud, cheery and almost booming Western Australian voice called out as everyone in the room began to filter out. Benedikt turned round and saw Noah being untangled from his microphone headpiece. “Just a sec” Benni took a step to the side and waited, letting Thomas and Matthias past, wishing both his compatriots luck for the weekend. Noah, once free of tangled cables, bounded over towards Benni with a beaming smile. He was the only one in the paddock that didn’t call him Benedikt or Benni, claiming he preferred neither, but he was always so bright and bubbly that he never minded too much. “Just wanted to wish you luck mate” He grinned, slapping Benni on the shoulder. “I hope it all goes well”

“Thanks same to you” And with that, Noah left with his press officer for the next event on the day’s schedule. Benni went on his toes, looking for Mario, when another friendly face clapped him on the shoulder. “Boa” Benedikt smiled at the sight of his former Mercedes press officer and pulled him into a friendly hug.

“It’s good to see you, I don’t think anyone other than Mats saw you at testing. The red suits you” Jérôme folded his arms across his chest after adjusting his glasses. “How are you?”

“Good, I’m… good yeah. Well the race hasn’t happened yet but…” Benni’s voice trailed off as he gave a small shrug of the shoulders.

“But you’re happy in your new home at least”

“Yeah, I am. So far anyway” Benedikt chuckled with a small smile. “You’re working with Thomas now too?”

“No Matthias actually. Speaking of which, duty calls” Jérôme raised his eyebrows as he looked at his watch, obviously running slightly late for another one of Matthias’ engagements.

“Take care of yourself Boa” Benedikt raised a hand in a small wave as Jérôme dashed out the room.

“You too Benni!” Benedikt smiled, scratching just under where the back of his red team cap sat, only to sigh when Mario finally came into view, looking like his usual ever-unamused self.

“If you’re done playing catch up, your track walk was supposed to start five minutes ago, then you have your interview with RTL, and a half hour break for lunch before the rest of your interviews” Mario reeled off Benni’s schedule in a monotone mumble off his phone, not even bothering to look at his driver.

“Do I have time to breathe?” Benni muttered under his breath. That caused Mario to look at him, albeit with a scowl.

“Jonas, Giorgio and the rest of your engineers are waiting for you in the pitlane” Mario frowned and shoved his phone in the pocket of his bright red trousers before marching out of the now empty press conference room. Benni huffed and rolled his eyes, staring up at the ceiling for a second before texting Jonas to say that he was on his way over to the pits.

Was Benedikt happy at Ferrari? So far, yes. Was he Happy with Mario as his press officer? Definitely not.

 

Sunday morning was always the worst day when it came to driving into the circuit, some wrongly assumed that the city races weren’t so bad because the fans can just walk or get public transport to the track. But in Melbourne’s case the Albert Park Street Circuit was partially made out of public roads,  meaning the traffic congestion was always a nightmare.

The circuit itself was by far one of the prettier ones in terms of location, it was slap bang in the middle of Albert Park with the race track arranged in a ribbon of corners, straight and chicanes around Albert Park Lake. As the race started slightly later on in the day to accommodate for the European TV market, it meant that the race finished a few hours before sunset. It made the circuit even nicer to look at on the TV screens, though the low sun that was in the driver’s eyes for 52 laps was a bit of a pain. Thank goodness for tinted helmet visors.

Benedikt huffed as he had one hand on the steering wheel and the other buried in his hair, he’d been stuck in the queue of cars that started at the circuit entrance for the past 20 minutes. At least he had Jonas in the front passenger seat for company, and the rental Alfa Romeo he had been given for the weekend had a wonderful air conditioning system.

“I knew we should have hired bikes and cycled in” Benni sighed again, winding down the car window to get a better look at the traffic queue that was ever so slowly moving forwards.

“But you hate cycling” Jonas scoffed, looking at his driver with a raised eyebrow, numerous times he had tried to convince Benni to add the odd bike ride into his training regime, but every single time Jonas got a short and very definitive ‘no’.

“Yeah but it would be quicker than this” Benedikt scoffed as he looked at his watch, it was almost half past eleven, with the race starting at ten past four in the afternoon. Ideally he would have arrived at the track already, preferably sat with Jonas having a coffee to calm his nerves.

The practice sessions and qualifying could have gone better, and they probably should have gone better. Him and Sami were lucky that one of the Red Bulls had reliability problems on their second lap in Q3, it meant that while they were still four and three and a half tenths off the pace respectively, it meant that they were due to start from fourth and fifth. Mercedes locking out the front row didn’t exactly help matters. Neither did Benni getting beaten by his team mate in their first head-to-head quali battle, but for this race and this race alone he was going to let it slide. Benedikt would happily finish his first race for his new team safely in the points, rather than pushing the car past its limits and ending up in the barriers.

After another ten minutes of queueing, Benni had finally pulled his rental car into the nearest available parking space in the designated F1 personnel car park. He took a moment to take a breath before slipping his paddock pass round his neck as he got out the car and went into the back to grab his rucksack. With Jonas appearing at his side Benni locked the door and stuffed the keys in his pocket as they briskly walked towards the paddock gates.

“On a positive note,” Jonas paused as they broke into a jog to beat a small group of journalists to the turnstiles. “Everyone else probably got caught up in the bad traffic _and_ we got here before noon” Jonas grinned as he pushed his way through the turnstile and stepped into the paddock, adjusting his sunglasses as he waited for Benedikt.

“With just over fifteen minutes to spare” Benni sighed and started walking with Jonas towards Ferrari’s hospitality building. The sun was shining, which was good. As was the minimal chance of rain during the race. The last thing he wanted to worry about was Giorgio messing up his strategy.

“Hey… Hey Benni!” Benedikt’s head snapped round, swiftly followed by the rest of his body, at the sound of Mats’ voice. By the looks of things he had also just arrived as he was adjusting his red paddock pass to fit under the collar of his team shirt (a white button down with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his preferred team gear of choice). “You two got stuck in the traffic as well?” Mats asked as he ran both hands though his messy mop of dark brown curls.

“Yeah, Benni even talked about leaving the car and riding in” Jonas scoffed as he looked at his watch.

“On a _bike?_ But you hate cycling” Mats raised an eyebrow at his former driver, Benedikt said nothing and just shrugged it off saying just how terrible the traffic was.

“Anyway, we need to go Benni. Engineers meeting” Jonas frowned as he cut the pair off mid-conversation, taking a step away from the former colleagues. Benedikt paused for a moment, suddenly remembering that this wasn’t going to be of those days where he and Mats could walk into hospitality together and grab a coffee before the pre-race strategy meeting. He still needed to get used to them working for different teams.

“Right yeah, I um… just wanted to wish you luck, again” Mats smiled as he briefly placed a hand on Benedikt’s shoulder. “Have a good one Benni” And with another one of his charming smiles, Mats left heading in the direction of Mercedes.

Benni and Jonas quickly sped off in the direction of their own team and were relieved to walk through the main doors with cool air conditioning blowing on their backs.

“I love Australia” Jonas sighed, switching his prescription sunglasses for his regular specs. “I never asked how your catch-up dinner with Mats went” He asked as Benni led the way towards his driver room.

“It was good” Benedikt shrugged, holding the door open for his personal trainer while he set his rucksack down on the floor. “He is my friend Jonas, I am allowed to see him you know”

“I know” Jonas carefully leaned against the massage table against the wall as he folded his arms across his chest. “Just don’t hang around with him so much that you piss off the bosses, or let the press think there’s going to be another Spygate”

“Well that won’t be the case because Mats works for Mercedes and not McLaren” Benni tutted as he grabbed a notebook from his bag and went to leave the room, heading for the strategy meeting with Max, Sami and their engineers. Jonas said nothing and rolled his eyes, before going to the kitchen to see if lunch was ready.

 

Benni was glad he had Sami for company on the driver’s parade, they stood together as the flatbed truck slowly made its way round the track so the drivers could all wave to the packed out grandstands. So many fans brought huge flags with them to either hang off the front of the grandstand or wave proudly in the air, and as was the case with almost every single grand prix; Ferrari flags outnumbered that of any other team or driver two to one.

Thankfully, the sight of a few German flags managed to put Benedikt’s mind somewhat at ease as the truck pulled back into the pitlane after what felt like only a few seconds. The moment it pulled to a stop the drivers hopped off one by one and instead of dashing back to their teams to try and avoid any loose journalists, they all walked onto the track where two rows of chairs had been set out right on the start finish line for the traditional start of season driver’s photo.

No one in the paddock can specifically remember just when the tradition actually started (and why a end of season photo was necessary too) but the fans seemed to enjoy it, so that was something.

The further down the grid your team was the furthest away from the front you got to stand, so Thomas and Matthias got pride of place in the middle of the front row, with Sami and Benni to Thomas’ right and Noah and Liam to Matthias’ left. The picture almost always had a strange ‘back to school’ feeling, especially this year with the influx of rookies and of course Benni’s shiny new red overalls complete with matching cap and race boots.

In just a few minutes it was over, the hoard of photographers had to be happy with the shots they had taken as the FIA’s press delegate signalled that their time was up and the drivers could finally go back to their teams, and get ready for the race that was now only an hour away.

 

Jonas let out a small breath as he briefly looked at his watch while Benni put his helmet on. It was bang on four o’clock in the afternoon, ten minutes until the formation lap and race start. He knew that Benedikt was nervous despite him not fully showing it, there was no human in the world that wouldn’t be even a little bit apprehensive about their first ever race for a new team, let alone for Ferrari.

He watched his driver carefully, as Jonas always did, making sure everything was as it was before he got into the car. His race boots had been securely tied (after Benni’s quick phone call home), his overalls were now zipped up to the chin with the little Velcro fastening sealed down with his balaclava ticked underneath. Benni tightly fastened the chinstrap of his blue helmet with HANS device already attached and visor still up before smoothing his hands down his overalls while looking at Jonas, who was holding a team umbrella over them to keep Benni out of the sun.

Jonas and Benedikt silently nodded at each other before Benni pulled Jonas into a tight one armed hug.

“See you in a couple of hours” Benni had to raise his voice to speak through the lining in his helmet. What Jonas did for the first time in six years was clap Benni on the shoulder, and smile at him as he wished him luck.

With a nod Benedikt climbed into his number four Ferrari and made sure he was comfortable in his seat before Andrea strapped him in making sure each his six point harness was fastened to Benni’s liking. Jonas was now stood with his umbrella over the cockpit of the car, keeping his driver cool while Claudio plugged in the radio cable and drinks bottle tube as Benni carefully pulled on his Ferrari red gloves.

“Radio check, radio check Benedikt”

“Loud and clear Giorgio”

“Okay, good luck today. Enjoy the race, hopefully we have a good one”

“Forza Ferrari” Benni chuckled as he flexed his fingers. Jonas heard the small exchange through his own radio headset, which he quickly adjusted right as Benedikt reached his hand out of the cockpit and towards his personal trainer, Jonas clapped their hands together as they both gave each other a reassuring squeeze; it was still just a race like any other, they’d both be fine.

And within a flash under the cooling Australian sun, it hit eight minutes past four. Mechanics whipped tyre blankets from the cars and ran to the nearest side of the track as personal trainers quickly withdrew their umbrellas and followed suit. The large clock above the end of the pitlane showed ten minutes past the hour and the grid slowly drove away to start the formation lap. Jonas allowed himself a moment of relief as Benni’s car got off the grid safely before the last car had suddenly gone past, and it was suddenly a frenzy as everyone who had been on the grid had just minutes to be back in the garages of their teams for the start of the race.

Logistically, Jonas had to be there before Sami’s and Benedikt’s mechanics since his place was firmly at the back as the rest of the garage space had been filled with empty chairs for the mechanics to sit on and watch the race as they joined forces to become the team’s pit crew.

He was so nervous about running into the right garage that he didn’t even notice Mario stood with Louise in the small space that separated each side of the Ferrari garage. As he placed Benni’s drinks bottle and the team umbrella he had been hogging around all day down the last of the mechanics were in their seats, and Thomas’ Mercedes was pulling into its pole position spot.

Jonas let out a long, ragged breath as the final car slowed into place and one of the marshals walked across the track waving a large green flag, a signal to the race director to ignite the start lights.

First one, then two, then three, then four, then five lit up slowly and they held suspended above the circuit as the full grid of twenty cars purred, each driver holding the clutch of their car with a foot hovering over the accelerator pedal. Jonas squeezed his hands as he held the back of his neck. Races were won and lost at the start, especially at difficult to overtake tracks like Albert Park.

Suddenly after an age, the lights went out, and the grid launched away hurtling towards turn one. The top six got through turns one and two cleanly, but some of the rookie drivers weren’t so lucky as one of the Williams drivers misjudged their braking zone and clattered into the back of a Toro Rosso, shattering carbon fibre everywhere. Thankfully, only front and rear suspensions were damaged and both drivers started a shouting match when they were successfully behind the Armco barriers. It meant the deployment of the safety car just to clear up any damage, finally allowing Jonas to breath a sigh of relief.

 

Races were always so strange, sometimes they went by in a flash, and others felt like they had dragged on for hours on end. Somehow to Benni, the 2018 Australian Grand Prix felt like both as when he crossed the finish line in fourth place a part of him felt relieved, while he could also swear he’d just started the race a lap ago.

Fourth was fine, it wasn’t third (what was Sami), and it wasn’t first or second (that was Mercedes, finishing how they’d started); at least it wasn’t lapsing in concentration and putting his car into the barriers at the last corner with five laps to go (that was Noah, he never seemed to have a good home race).

So fourth was fine. Benni hadn’t expected much given how practice had went, always half a tenth behind Mercedes in race pace no matter what they did.

“Congratulations Benedikt, your first points for Ferrari, well done” Giorgio came over the radio sounding ever so slightly proud after Benni crossed the finish line.

“Thank you guys, grazie. Hopefully a better race next time. Congrats to Sami on his podium” Benni drove slowly on his parade lap, waving to the crowd and picking up rubber marbles on his tyres (a thing every driver did, picking up a little bit of extra weight to help the car pass scrutineering).

The main feeling Benedikt felt was relief, his engine didn’t blow mid race, he wasn’t taken out by a back marker, he didn’t crash out at the start. He’d finished his first ever race for Ferrari, bagged twelve points and driven a very solid race despite Ferrari being a couple of seconds off Mercedes’ race pace. The team said it was due to the quirks of the Melbourne circuit and that they’d be much faster in Bahrain, Benedikt certainly hoped that was the case.

But for the moment, as at the end of the lap he drove his car through the pitlane and into parc fermé he allowed himself to be happy, twelve points was much better than ten after all.

He switched off the car and jumped out after unclipping his harness, taking care to re-attach the steering wheel and not damage any of the small winglets on the halo. Benni paused and softly patted the prancing horse badge on his car with a smile as he made his way over to the scrutineering garage to be weighed. He must have driven a quicker in-lap than he realised as Sami was still loitering around with Mesut and Louise, all three of them looking very pleased with themselves.

“Benni!” Sami grinned at the sight of his team mate and lunged over towards him, pulling him into a  brief hug. “Fourth is good, you ran quicker than me for a few laps. I’ll have to see your notes in the debrief” Benni paused, a smirk washing over his face,

“But that would be telling” Both drivers chuckled and patted each other on the shoulder as Benedikt happily congratulated his team mate on his first podium of the season, before Sami was dragged away up a set of stairs towards the podium.

While Benni jumped on one of the sets of scales to be weighed, Jonas appeared out of nowhere, beaming as if Benedikt had won the race. Jonas clapped his driver on the shoulder and pulled him into a hug when Benni stepped back onto the floor.

“First points of the year!” He exclaimed excitedly as Benni took off his helmet, gloves and balaclava.

“I finished” Benedikt sighed with a smile.

“I’m sure today’s pace was a one off, Ferrari did make our lives hell last year in Bahrain, so we might be okay” Jonas swapped the drinks bottle he was holding for Benni’s helmet as they made their long walk back towards the Ferrari garage.

“We? You’ve embraced the bright red trousers awfully fast” Benedikt chuckled as Jonas adjusted his glasses.

“Eh, they go with the shirt” He shrugged as they re-emerged into the bright sunlight of the pit lane. Benedikt quickly went over to some of his old Mercedes mechanics and congratulated them on their good race result before squeezing past the rear wheel of Matthias’ car and back towards his personal trainer.

“Do you think this is going to be a good season?” Benni asked out of the blue when they were just paces away from the Ferrari garage.

“I don’t know” Jonas shrugged, scratching at his stubble. “It’s only been one race, besides the track is always a weird one compared to the rest, I’d leave the worrying until after Baku”

There was two races between now and Baku, Bahrain in two weeks’ time with China the following week, and the race in Baku, Azerbaijan a further two weeks after that, finishing off the first round of flyaways. The first four races of the 21 race championship done and dusted in just over a month.

Before Benni re-entered the Ferrari garage to greet his mechanics, he paused and sighed. He wanted this move to Ferrari to be worth it, he wanted another championship, he wanted one so, so badly. And even if he didn’t win it this year, he wanted to beat Mercedes just to prove a point; that he _was_ just as good as Thomas and Sami, maybe even better.

And while he hugged all of his Ferrari mechanics, who all seemed surprisingly happy at Benni finishing fourth, a small part of him quietly hoped that his new mission to beat Mercedes wasn’t going to sacrifice his friendship with Mats along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Definitions:  
> The Grid: Can either mean the starting grid or the whole field of teams/drivers  
> Spygate: the huge 2007 espionage scandal where McLaren where found to have illegally obtained information about the design of Ferrari’s car. They were excluded from the Constructors championship that season and fined £100 million.
> 
> Championship Standings:
> 
> Drivers:  
> 1\. Thomas Muller (25pts)  
> 2\. Matthias Ginter (18pts)  
> 3\. Sami Khedira (15pts)  
> 4\. Benedikt Howedes (12pts)  
> 5\. Liam Peters (10 pts)
> 
> Constructors:  
> 1\. Mercedes (43pts)  
> 2\. Ferrari (27pts)  
> 3\. Haas (12pts)  
> 4\. Red Bull (10pts)  
> 5\. McLaren (7pts)

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a kudos/comment if you enjoyed!


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